NATO headquarters building in Brussels. File photoANKARA, May 24.Former Prime Minister and former Foreign Minister of Finland Alexander Stubb said that NATO should take into account Turkey's fears about the membership of Finland and Sweden in the alliance. Finland and Sweden, against the backdrop of events in Ukraine, submitted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg applications to join the alliance. Earlier, the Financial Times wrote that Turkey blocked the start of the process of considering the application for Finland and Sweden to join NATO. The Turkish President said that Ankara cannot say «yes» to the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO, because it cannot believe their assurances about relations with representatives of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey.
Unexpected protest. Who in NATO was not happy with the Finns and the Swedes «It is necessary to take into account the concerns of Turkey about security. As far as I understand, one of them is connected with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) banned in Turkey, and the other with the arms embargo. Now, in my experience, these problems can be solved, but measures must be taken to solve them,» Star newspaper quoted him as saying. Recalling that Finland supports Turkey's EU membership process, Stubb said that relations between Turkey and Finland «have always been very good.» In Russia, it has been repeatedly noted that NATO is aimed at confrontation. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov stated that further expansion of the alliance would not bring greater security to Europe, NATO has an aggressive character. At the same time, he noted that he did not consider the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO an existential threat to Russia. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that abandoning Finland's traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake, since there are no threats to its security. Turkey predicted paradoxical collapse of NATO
